Safety - Program Executive Office Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternative

Staff from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention listen and look as they are provided a tour of the Static Detonation Chamber 2000 during surrogate testing. Boxes containing surrogate materials waiting to be fed into the detonation chamber sit on the infeed conveyor in the foreground.

Surrogate Test Completed at Blue Grass

Experts preparing the Static Detonation Chamber 2000 at the Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant concluded an important test in early November, preparing for its use destroying nerve agent by effectively destroying surrogate chemicals, according to preliminary results. “This was the next step in demonstrating the system is capable of safely destroying nerve-agent filled rockets,” …

Surrogate Test Completed at Blue Grass Read More »

Workers lower a 30,000-pound buffer tank into the Blue Grass Static Detonation Chamber 1200 building through an opening in the roof. This tank will buffer exhaust gases from the destruction process of the drained nerve-agent rocket warheads before the gases are processed in the off-gas treatment system.

New Tank Safely Lowered Through Roof

A team of specialists placed a 30,000-pound buffer tank through a roof opening in the former Blue Grass mustard-agent destruction facility March 14 to ready the building for the next chemical weapons destruction effort.

Workers remove the first crate of non-contaminated rocket motors from a storage igloo on the Blue Grass Army Depot in preparation for transport to the Anniston Army Depot in Alabama. The first load was shipped out Nov. 1 and received Nov. 2. The motors will be destroyed in the Anniston Static Detonation Chamber when environmental permitting is completed. A portion of this photo has been blurred in accordance with Department of Defense guidelines.

First Non-Contaminated Rocket Motor Shipment Completed

The first boxes of non-contaminated rocket motors were transported via truck from the Blue Grass Army Depot Nov. 1 and safely arrived Nov. 2 at the Anniston Army Depot in Alabama to be destroyed in a Static Detonation Chamber.

A worker unstraps two pallets of VX M55 rockets in the Munitions Demilitarization Building at the Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant in this file photograph from July. As of Nov. 14, 50% of the VX agent stored on the Blue Grass Army Depot has been destroyed.

Fifty Percent of VX Nerve Agent Destroyed in Kentucky

Fifty percent of all VX nerve agent in the stockpile of chemical weapons stored at the Blue Grass Army Depot has been destroyed as of Nov. 14.

An operator checks to make sure a valve is open for loading hydrolysate into a tank trailer at the Tanker Loading Station at the Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant. The first two tankers of hydrolysate were safely shipped Oct. 7 for destruction at Veolia Environmental Services near Port Arthur, Texas.

First Blue Grass Hydrolysate Shipment Safely Completed

The first two tanker trucks filled with hydrolysate left the Blue Grass plant Oct. 7 for destruction at an off-site treatment, storage and disposal facility in Texas.

Medical personnel perform a drill of stabilizing a patient (a medical dummy) and preparing him for transport to a local hospital at the Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant. The plant relies upon 12 area hospitals to receive decontaminated and stabilized personnel in the unlikely event of a chemical-agent or industrial accident.

Coordination with Hospitals Essential for Plant Operations

Following a brief pause in processing while local hospitals were at capacity due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Blue Grass plant officials coordinated with additional area hospitals and enhanced coordination with the Blue Grass Chemical Activity and the Madison County Emergency Management Agency/Kentucky Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program, or CSEPP, to ensure coverage in the event of an unlikely chemical-agent contamination or industrial accident.